PARENTS GIVEN CHANCE TO TEST KIDS FOR DRUGS DURING RED RIBBON WEEK

It's Red Ribbon Week. Do you know if your children are doing drugs?

Drug testing is being offered for $2 this week at the Drug Lab on
Palm Avenue in Palatka. Red Ribbon Week began Monday and ends on
Halloween. It is a nationally recognized campaign that began in 1988
to encourage children and teens to stay off drugs.

Testing began Tuesday from noon to 5 p.m. and will continue through
Friday. Times vary each day. Parents were asked to bring their
children to get tested to ensure they are drug free.

Counselors are on site for parents who want to talk about test
results with their children.

"We thought we would offer low-income testing this week. Parents
should take advantage of the testing now because it's inexpensive at
this time," said Selma Carrow, owner of the Drug Lab Inc. "The longer
kids are on drugs, the harder it is to get them off."

Normally, the cost would be $15 to test for cocaine and
tetrahydrcannabinol (THC), the main ingredient in cannabis. But this
week it's discounted to $2. This is the first year the lab has done
low-priced testing during Red Ribbon Week and Carrow hopes to make it
an annual event.

"I think Putnam County has a drug problem and parents should be
assured that their children are clean and get them help if they
aren't," Carrow said.

To test for other drugs, the cost would be $10 for one drug, $19 for
three drugs, $25 for five drugs and $35 for eight drugs. The lab
tests for amphetamines/methamphetamines, barbiturates,
benzodiazepine, cocaine, methadone, opiates, Phencyclidine (PCP), THC
and ecstasy.

Carrow said teens are hosting "pill parties" to get high with
friends. Teens take pills from parents' purses or medicine cabinets,
put them in a bowl and down them without knowing what they're taking.

Not many participated Tuesday, but Carrow hopes for more today and
the rest of the week.

Some parents say they trust their children to tell them if they were
doing drugs and would not randomly test them.

"I have an open relationship with my children," said Rhonda Odom, of
Palatka who has a child in high school. "I wouldn't test them because
I trust them. It's probably not very smart, but I do."

Odom said because of the things she used to hear about children when
she worked in the school system she believes Putnam's children have a
drug problem .

Felicia Kee, a San Mateo resident who said she would not have to
askif her child was on drugs, but would observe the changes in him.

"You can tell the changes," Kee said. "But it wouldn't hurt to test them."

Kee said she also believes there's a problem with drugs in Putnam
County because she knows a lot of people who started using at early ages.

"It's a lot of young ones I know who started early. You'd be
surprised," Kee said.

It's not always marijuana or cocaine anymore, but Robitussin and pain
relievers, Carrow said. She said her lab can test for those, too.

"My goal is to make Putnam drug free," Carrow said. "I just want to
get them help."

Carrow was instrumental in starting the drug court in the county. She
is the treasurer of the Putnam County Anti-drug Coalition and is a
former felony probation officer.

For more information about the Drug Lab, call Carrow at 325-4955. The
lab is at 310 S. Palm Ave., Suite 12.